Revision 8/29/2009 5:01 PM
Name: MALCHACE
Type: Freighter
Built: 1920 by Merrill-Stevens Shipbuilding Corporation, Jacksonville, FL
Owner: C.D. Malloray & Co, Inc., New York, New York
Home Port: Wilmington, DE
Size (ft.): 333-8 x 48-0 x 23-0
Gross Tonnage: 5800 tons
Propulsion: Single screw oil fired steam turbine engine/speed 10 knts
Date Sunk: 4/9/1942
Cause: Torpedoed by U-160
Location Cape Lookout, NC
GPS: N/A
Malchace early in 1942 (
Gentile, National Archives)
SHIP HISTORY : (
Sources: Moore, Gentile, 10) The
Malchace was traveling alone and unarmed from Baton Rouge, LA to Hopewell, NJ with 3628 tons of soda ash. On April 8, the freighter made a brief stop in Fernandina, FL to unload deck cargo. At 0158 on the morning of April 9, a torpedo from the U-160 struck the
Malchace on the port side just forward of #4 hold. The captain stopped the engines. The u-boat surfaced and circled the ship before sending second torpedo into the port side just aft of #3 hold at 0221. The explosion blew a hole in the bulkhead and the engine room was flooded. The captain ordered abandon ship after the 2nd torpedo hit and all but 1 of his crew of 29 made it safely to lifeboats. The
Malchace sank at 0345. As they were rowing towards shore in the still dark morning, they witnessed the explosion and resulting fire from the sinking tanker
Atlas. The lifeboats were spotted at 0830 by the passing Mexican tanker
Faja de Oro and the
Malchace survivors were picked up. They were later transferred to a guard vessel at Cape Henry, VA and taken to Norfolk, Va.
The
Faja de Oro was originally an Italian tanker named
Genoano. It was seized by the Mexican government in Tampico, Mexico one day after Pearl Harbor (December 7, 1941) and renamed the
Faja de Oro. A little more than a month (May 21) after picking up the
Malchace survivors, the
Faja de Oro was sunk in the Gulf of Mexico by the
U-160, an attack which killed 10 men and forced the Mexican Government to declare war on the Axis powers on May 22, 1942.
In an interesting footnote, the final resting places of the
Malchace and the shallower but nearby
Manuelawere switched (it was thought that the
Manuelawas the deeper site) until Gary Gentile recovered the bell of the
Manuela at the location we know today.
Malchace (
Gentile)
Malchace (
Moore)
DIVING NOTES:
Diving Depths: 185-200 ft.
Visibility: Generally 60 feet or better
Current: Slight to reportedly undiveable
Summer Temperature: mid to high 70s
Points of Interest: Anchors, large boilers, remains of railroad tanker cars and four bladed propeller
Fish/Animal Life: Large grouper, red snapper and occasional sandtiger
Description: [